Igloo Max Cold 165
 

My fiance just bought this massive cooler from costco on saturday. She thought it would be good for out parties and what not. I thought it could be good for making some beer. I have yet to move to a complete all grain and use a mashtun and everything. What do you guys think? is it too big, Is anyone using this?

That is a pretty dang big cooler. I've seen those monsters at Costco. I'm thinking its to big for a 5 gallon grain bill to get any kind of grain bed.

That's what I was afraid of. What about a 10 to 15 gal brew?

When you are ready for grain brewing then just buy a good sized cooler for your needs. I am not sure I would start out with 10-15 gallons brews. For what it's worth will you use a 165 qt. cooler all that often?

A buddy of mine got one of these and it's huge. He hasn't tried a 5 gallon brew with it yet, but I told him the same thing - that he might have problems with mashing properly. He said he's going to try one here in a couple of weeks and if he does I'll report back the results.

That would be great pm me or write on here on how it went. Yes we will be using this thing a lot. We just used it for two of my kegs at my sons birthday party and it worked great. Then we used it this weekend for a bunch of beer water and soda at my buddies house warming party

I would think a 165 qt. cooler would be perfect for 20 - 40 gallon batches.

It would be GREAT for 20 gallon batches and would work good for ten but not for a 5 gallon batch.
Unless you are going to go with a min of 10 gal then sure use this but if not then don't. Remember, the more you mash the more you boil. I have a 20 gallon MLT and it works great for both 5 and 10 gal but if I want to go bigger (which I can) I need to get a larger kettle,

Costco is also currently selling those 70 quart maxcold coolers that are a much more reasonable size. They also work as great fermentation chambers, which is why I picked up two!